WMS Functionality: Task Planning

A WMS doesn’t just record completed transactions. It should let you plan the timing and priority of upcoming warehouse tasks. With a solid WMS, managers can configure task creation triggers and approval paths in ways that best fit your particular operations.

Here are some of the task planning functions that your WMS should support:

Configurable picking list creation triggers. Often referred to as outbound waves, the WMS should allow you to plan which work shift or which work day a sales, return or transfer orderwill be performed and then automatically create pick lists at the designated time.Configurable warehouse location capacity and product location assignment. While dynamic slotting is an advanced functionality rarely present in a WMS, you should still expect your WMS to provide insights on location usage to allow managers to plan the assignment of items to different locations.

Inventory rotation and expiration data management. In a warehouse with perishable products, the host system should understand product availability according to expiration dates in order to allow management of specific customer shelf life requirements. You should expect to use WMS tools to properly plan inventory rotation within the warehouse and take action when items are no longer within saleable tolerances.

Push notification such as e-mails and text messages when specific events occurs. A manager can’t be expected to refresh a page every minute and with the latest in IT, they shouldn’t need to. Event intensive software like your WMS should provide configurable message triggers to notify people when they need to act on specific thresholds or give approval to a given portion of a document’s life cycle e.g., “Manager, BOL 43432 is ready for processing, please complete your approval.”

These are a few examples of WMS tools that you can expect to be available out of the box. Think of these as the steering wheel of a high performance car. No matter how well your tiresgrip, if you can’t control the car’s direction, you will not be able to take a curve or avoid upcoming obstacles.